Government official downplays food shortage forecast

A Rwandan official has downplayed predictions by the US government-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) that up to almost a half million Rwandans could experience chronic hunger. "We certainly do not need food assistance coming from outside because the crisis is not alarming," an official in Rwanda's Ministry of Agriculture told IRIN. He spoke on condition of anonymity. FEWS NET, on the other hand, has requested that all international agencies concerned with food assistance, "scale up their existing interventions considerably ... until the next harvest in December/January". The network of scientific institutions and private enterprise issued a statement on 7 September saying: "There are districts that are chronically food insecure, and 250,000 to 400,000 people in these districts will need 15,000 to 25,000 mt of food assistance between September and December." The food insecurity has been caused by prolonged drought conditions as well as poor soils the network said. It identified 31 districts throughout the country where approximately 10 percent to 15 percent of the population could run out of food stocks between September and October. The most vulnerable are the southern districts of Bugesera, Gikongoro, and Butare. They will need "the most assistance". Milk production has decreased "significantly" which "affects many households in the eastern pastoral regions, such as Umutara, where milk sale is a major source of income". But the government official said the government was initiating alternative income generating activities for poor households in affected areas to enable them buy food from the parts of the country where food would remain in supply. He said that compared to other countries in the region the threat was "moderate".